This rare Artist’s Proof of Highland Morning by American printmaker John Wade showcases his masterful hybrid technique, blending photographic detail with hand-drawn etching. In this serene lakeside scene, waterfowl move across a softly illuminated highland pond while a foreground bird spreads its wings in the reeds. Wade’s atmospheric photo-emulsion process gives the work exceptional tonal subtlety, making this AP impression a standout example of his pioneering approach to experimental American printmaking.
Highland Morning (AP I) is a large-format black-and-white with blue photo emulsion etching that captures the stillness and reflective beauty of an early morning wetlands scene. The composition centers on a goose lifting its wings beside textured marsh grasses while a group of ducks glides across the pond. Mist and water merge in soft gradations, and the reflective ripples surrounding the birds create a natural, poetic rhythm.
The foreground bird is rendered with delicate etched cross-contours, revealing Wade’s background in technical illustration, while the far shoreline and sky have the distinctive tonal grain that emerges through his photographic emulsion process.
Wade’s technique—known as an emulsion etching—involves coating a metal plate with a photo-sensitive emulsion, exposing it to light through a photographic transparency, and then etching the plate in acid. This allows photographic detail to fuse with the etched surface, while the artist’s hand remains essential through direct drawing, textural manipulation, burnishing, scraping, and expressive inking.
The result is a hybrid artwork—part photograph, part engraving—capable of remarkable subtlety in light, shadow, and surface depth.
In Highland Morning, this process creates a luminous interplay between mist, water, feathers, and reeds, producing a scene that is both naturalistic and dreamlike.
The print is hand-titled Highland Morning, signed John Wade, and marked AP I, indicating the first Artist’s Proof.
John Wade (born 1947, Charlottesville, Virginia) is an American printmaker known for blending traditional etching, lithography, and relief techniques with early photo-emulsion processes beginning in the late 1960s. His work occupies an important niche in the movement toward experimental printmaking workshops that emerged in the post-war era in the United States.
Wade studied at Elon College (BA) and later earned an Associate of Applied Arts degree from the Technical College of Alamance, focusing on advanced printmaking, drafting, and technical illustration. Between 1967 and 1971, he served in the U.S. Army as a military illustrator, where he refined his precision in linework, perspective, and tonal rendering—skills that would later underpin his etching style.
In 1977, Wade established his own printmaking studio in North Carolina, designing it as an experimental workshopwhere he developed hybrid processes:
• photo-emulsion applied to copper plates
• multi-plate tonal etching
• hand-drawn aquatint overlays
• early light-sensitive resist techniques influenced by commercial photomechanical processes
Wade’s influences include mid-century American regionalist printmakers, technical illustration, early photographic etching pioneers, and the dramatic tonal structures of 19th-century European etchers. He became known for creating imagery that is both realistic and otherworldly, often depicting barns, rural roads, storms, waterfowl, and nocturnal scenes with heightened contrast and emotional intensity.
His work has received awards in regional art competitions throughout the Southeastern United States, and his prints are represented in numerous private collections in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, as well as select university collections with contemporary printmaking programs.
By the 1980s–1990s, Wade’s workshop became a training site for younger printmakers interested in combining analog photographic processes with traditional intaglio—placing him among the early adopters of hybrid photographic/non-silver techniques in studio printmaking.
John Wade, Highland Morning, Artist’s Proof I. Large photo-emulsion etching, 16×30 in. Signed AP I. Rare early hybrid intaglio example.
CERTIFICATE OF VALUE & AUTHENTICATION
Artist: John Wade (b.1947)
Title: Highland Morning (AP I)
Date: 1970s–1980s
Medium: Photo-Emulsion Etching (Hybrid Photographic/Intaglio Technique)
Dimensions: 16 × 30 inches
Edition: Artist’s Proof I (AP I)
Signature: Hand-signed “John Wade,” marked AP I
Authenticity: Verified through signature, AP notation, plate characteristics, and Wade’s documented emulsion-etching processes.
Current Owner: Artfind Gallery, Washington, DC
This work is certified as an authentic original etching by John Wade.
Artist’s Studio, North Carolina – Artist’s Proof retained by or released directly by the artist
Private Collection, USA
Artfind Gallery, Washington, DC — current owner
This rare Artist’s Proof of Highland Morning by American printmaker John Wade showcases his masterful hybrid technique, blending photographic detail with hand-drawn etching. In this serene lakeside scene, waterfowl move across a softly illuminated highland pond while a foreground bird spreads its wings in the reeds. Wade’s atmospheric photo-emulsion process gives the work exceptional tonal subtlety, making this AP impression a standout example of his pioneering approach to experimental American printmaking.
Highland Morning (AP I) is a large-format black-and-white with blue photo emulsion etching that captures the stillness and reflective beauty of an early morning wetlands scene. The composition centers on a goose lifting its wings beside textured marsh grasses while a group of ducks glides across the pond. Mist and water merge in soft gradations, and the reflective ripples surrounding the birds create a natural, poetic rhythm.
The foreground bird is rendered with delicate etched cross-contours, revealing Wade’s background in technical illustration, while the far shoreline and sky have the distinctive tonal grain that emerges through his photographic emulsion process.
Wade’s technique—known as an emulsion etching—involves coating a metal plate with a photo-sensitive emulsion, exposing it to light through a photographic transparency, and then etching the plate in acid. This allows photographic detail to fuse with the etched surface, while the artist’s hand remains essential through direct drawing, textural manipulation, burnishing, scraping, and expressive inking.
The result is a hybrid artwork—part photograph, part engraving—capable of remarkable subtlety in light, shadow, and surface depth.
In Highland Morning, this process creates a luminous interplay between mist, water, feathers, and reeds, producing a scene that is both naturalistic and dreamlike.
The print is hand-titled Highland Morning, signed John Wade, and marked AP I, indicating the first Artist’s Proof.
John Wade (born 1947, Charlottesville, Virginia) is an American printmaker known for blending traditional etching, lithography, and relief techniques with early photo-emulsion processes beginning in the late 1960s. His work occupies an important niche in the movement toward experimental printmaking workshops that emerged in the post-war era in the United States.
Wade studied at Elon College (BA) and later earned an Associate of Applied Arts degree from the Technical College of Alamance, focusing on advanced printmaking, drafting, and technical illustration. Between 1967 and 1971, he served in the U.S. Army as a military illustrator, where he refined his precision in linework, perspective, and tonal rendering—skills that would later underpin his etching style.
In 1977, Wade established his own printmaking studio in North Carolina, designing it as an experimental workshopwhere he developed hybrid processes:
• photo-emulsion applied to copper plates
• multi-plate tonal etching
• hand-drawn aquatint overlays
• early light-sensitive resist techniques influenced by commercial photomechanical processes
Wade’s influences include mid-century American regionalist printmakers, technical illustration, early photographic etching pioneers, and the dramatic tonal structures of 19th-century European etchers. He became known for creating imagery that is both realistic and otherworldly, often depicting barns, rural roads, storms, waterfowl, and nocturnal scenes with heightened contrast and emotional intensity.
His work has received awards in regional art competitions throughout the Southeastern United States, and his prints are represented in numerous private collections in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, as well as select university collections with contemporary printmaking programs.
By the 1980s–1990s, Wade’s workshop became a training site for younger printmakers interested in combining analog photographic processes with traditional intaglio—placing him among the early adopters of hybrid photographic/non-silver techniques in studio printmaking.
John Wade, Highland Morning, Artist’s Proof I. Large photo-emulsion etching, 16×30 in. Signed AP I. Rare early hybrid intaglio example.
CERTIFICATE OF VALUE & AUTHENTICATION
Artist: John Wade (b.1947)
Title: Highland Morning (AP I)
Date: 1970s–1980s
Medium: Photo-Emulsion Etching (Hybrid Photographic/Intaglio Technique)
Dimensions: 16 × 30 inches
Edition: Artist’s Proof I (AP I)
Signature: Hand-signed “John Wade,” marked AP I
Authenticity: Verified through signature, AP notation, plate characteristics, and Wade’s documented emulsion-etching processes.
Current Owner: Artfind Gallery, Washington, DC
This work is certified as an authentic original etching by John Wade.
Artist’s Studio, North Carolina – Artist’s Proof retained by or released directly by the artist
Private Collection, USA
Artfind Gallery, Washington, DC — current owner
